Author: Scott Syfert

Scott Syfert is a corporate attorney at Moore & Van Allen in Charlotte. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, the London School of Economics and the University of Virginia. He is also co-founder of the May 20th Society, a non-profit dedicated to commemorating the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. He writes frequently on local North Carolina history and politics. His book The First Declaration of Independence? The Disputed History of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence of May 20, 1775 (read the JAR review) was published in 2013 by McFarland & Co.

3
Battles Posted on

Ramsour’s Mill, June 20, 1780: The End of Cornwallis’ Loyalist Illusion

Following the surrender of the major coastal capital of Charlestown, South Carolina (present-day Charleston) to the joint army-navy expeditionary force led by Maj. Gen. Sir Henry Clinton and Vice Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot in May 1780, British land forces began to fan out across the Carolina interior to reestablish Royal control. When Clinton returned to New […]

by Scott Syfert
16
Politics During the War (1775-1783) Posted on

The Mecklenburg Declaration In Revolutionary War Pension Applications

In Hershel Parker’s excellent article in the October 2014 Journal of the American Revolution (“Fanning Outfoxes Marion”) he makes reference to an important research tool, namely hundreds of Revolutionary War pension applications that have recently been transcribed by Will Graves and C. Leon Harris, and are in searchable electronic format.[1] This is an important tool […]

by Scott Syfert
5
Places Posted on

Commemorating the Battle of Charlotte

Thursday, September 26, 2013, represented the 233rd anniversary of the Battle of Charlotte, a small but important skirmish between local Carolina militia and the full might of Lord Cornwallis’s British army. In the late summer of 1780, local militia received word that Cornwallis’s army was on the march from Camden, South Carolina towards Charlotte.  Militia […]

by Scott Syfert